Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

scarlet garner as a symbolism The ruby-red Letter As a Symbol Often throughout The blood-red Letter there are symbolic references made. The story deals with a puritan woman who commits adultery and raises an illegitimate child named Pearl. The author, Nathanial Hawthorne, uses many ghostlike and inherent images to symbolize different points. One of the purposes of this symbolism is to show that Puritanism is hypocritical and that their religious viewpoints are against the infixed order, which is d single by using contrasting natural and religious symbols in the descriptions of Pearl. Also through out the book, Hawthorne uses the garner as a major symbol. At the beginning of the story, the letter is a symbol of sin. The sin was adultery. Hester has had relations with man while she had a husband. At the time, she wasnt aware that her husband was still alive. The evidence of her actions was her daughter, Pearl. For her sentence, Hester would have to wear the letter A and also stand on the scaffolds in the afternoon. In later(prenominal) chapters, the letter evolves into able. Some years after the beginning of the incident, Hester has tried to attain on with her life and has become a big help to her community. She is hearty liked for her art in sewing, and is also helpful towards the sick and the dying. most of the townspeople have forgotten what has happened and have accepted Hester for who she is and not what she has done. The ware of Hesters sin was also a symbol used in the book. Pearl was always a symbol for her sin. She was the evidence that convicted Hester. In one part of the story, Hester and Pearl visit the Governor and Pearl is dressed up in a red dress with gold trim. She was described as resembling the letter on her mothers chest. Hester character is shown here because by dressing Pearl up to look like the letter, she admits that she is not humiliated of what she has done and what has come out of it. In the second scaffold scene, a scarl et A appears in the sky above Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl. In this scene, the letter actually represents two things. One of them is nonesuch. One of the townsmen has just passed away and they believed that it was his angel overhead. The second symbol is forgiveness.